Trains and Boats and Planes

Distance Traveled:   14,815 kms (BNE-MEL-SYD-BKK-PKT-BKK-CNX-BKK-PP-SR-BB-PP)

Flags Collected:   0
Time Difference: -3 hours (from Brisbane)

Soundtrack:  Burt Bacharach (hence the blog title)

Currently Inspired by:  One of my all time favourite quotes that someone recently reminded me of: “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that Happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “Happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” John Lennon.

Stacks:   None. Am sensing a pattern.

Words written:   13,899 
 

Cambodian countryside about Battambang

I left wee Battambang on Monday, and caught the bus from hell.  The only way it could have been worse would be if it had been a bus TO hell.  Hot, stuffy, uncomfortable, tiny little amounts of leg room so I was cramped the entire time, my knees were pushed into the seat back in front which was covered with previous passenger’s discarded chewing gum, then the guy in front of me lay his seat back (I have bruises from this), the curtains smelt like onions for some inexplicable reason, the driver never let the horn rest for the entire drive and also insisted on playing these irritatingly squawky Asian tv shows at full volume on a tiny tv near the front.  I endured this for three and half hours or so and then was unceremoniously booted off on a dusty little street in this teeny tiny town called Kampong Chhnang.  I had motorbike drivers swarming around me, attempting to take me, my suitcase and backpack on a bike, but I eventually found a tuk tuk and said “take me to a hotel”, and ended up at basically the hotel equivalent of the bus I’d just escaped from. No power, no internet, shabby old room, no food, and a long walk down a dusty road and past the local prison (lovely) to get into “town” which was simply characterised by a lot more dust flying everywhere from the increased traffic.  I’m beginning to understand why so many people here wear masks all the time!  Despite not having had a cigarette for several months, I have quite a nasty cough.

Having said all of the above, once I accepted that this was the way it was going to be, I was perfectly content.  It’s always exciting being somewhere new, and now that I’m relaxing by degrees and not taking life as seriously as I used to, I can laugh about these things.  Circumstances such as the above do make for funny blogs as well.  I’m beginning to realise that you can visit and explore a new town every few days for the rest of your life and never see a hundredth of the world.  It’s so freaking big!  Even the small countries are big.  We never do anywhere properly really, unless we live there.  And there are plenty of restaurants and parks and scenic spots and clubs in Brisbane that I’ve still never been to, and I was born and raised there.

Being forced outside due to lack of power was actually a great thing, because I met a kiwi mother and daughter who were here on a charitable trip with Habitats for Humanity (laws of attraction, huh?) and were now in the holiday portion of their visit.  So we went out for a lovely dinner and chat, and met again for breakfast in the morning before they headed off.  I then caught a bike to the docks where a tiny little Vietnamese woman paddled me around some floating villages in a mini sandpan.  Remember I said from the boat on the way to Battambang I saw the floating villages and the fishermen in those little boats that I was certain I would fall out of?  That’s what I saw, and rode in.  I didn’t QUITE fall out, but I gave it my best shot :)
 

The boat and villages were pretty cool but I felt that same level of discomfort that I experienced in the long neck village in Thailand.  Paying money to go and peer at other humans like they’re in a zoo is just not my style.  So I looked around and waved to the kids and caught the kisses they blew me (too cute) but if I could see adults in their homes I would quickly look away.  Once we got back I required the loo, didn’t know if there was one and had to have a very interesting game of charades with my boat lady who didn’t know what “toilet”, “restroom”, “ladies”, or “bathroom” meant.  It brought back nightmarish Paris flashbacks for those of you who remember my Nurofen story.  I was sure they were just having me on so they could make me mime it and laugh at me!  Travel tip: as well as learning how to say “please”, “thank you”, “hello” and “goodbye” in the native language every time you travel, learn how to say “toilet”.

Following the boats my bike driver Sari, a very very funny guy, picked me up again and we went riding through a nearby village that is full of people who make pottery.  So we stopped at a few shops / homes and watched them making it which was actually pretty cool.  I got to chat to some of the local villagers with Sari acting as a translator so it was a perspective I hadn’t experienced so far in the trip.  Most of the women wanted to know why I wasn’t married and didn’t have children, and how I was brave enough to travel on my own.  I discovered that saying “I don’t want to get married” doesn’t cut it here.  They either don’t understand the concept of not wanting to be married, or don’t see what wanting to get married has to do with actually getting married, I don’t know.

Bored and hot is not a good combination.  However this is the position in which I found myself that afternoon.  I had pretty much done everything touristy there was to do in the town at this point, so I headed back to the room to do some writing, and surprise surprise, there was no power.  It’s amazing really, because the first time I travelled I didn’t have a computer or access to wireless internet, a phone that only made calls and texted, and I was completely fine with just checking my emails whenever I could get to a cafe.  But these days?  Stick me in a room without air con, wifi or the ability to write on a laptop (I have a pen and paper) and suddenly I have no idea how to entertain myself.  No one else was at the hotel so there was no conversation to be had.  I sat and tapped my fingers for a few minutes and then decided to give my boring Pol Pot textbook another shot.  Three pages in, I was snoring.  You know when you fall asleep during the day in the heat, and you don’t sleep properly?  I had one of those nasty sleeps and woke up an hour later, drenched in sweat, mouth like the bottom of a bird cage and still with no power.  Pleasant.

That night Sari came and picked me up again and took me to a restaurant a few kilometres out of town.  Another lesson was learned – if you are riding a bike at night without a helmet, you will get many bugs in your hair / eyes / mouth.  I was full by the time we got there!  Just kidding.  They had a karaoke machine playing but no microphone, so they were actually using it as background music.  It was a good meal, we had fun and a couple of beers, and then headed back.  All in all I’m glad I stopped in Kampong Chhnang.  I got to see things and meet people I wouldn’t have otherwise.  Would I go back?  Probably not.

I have spent the last four days in Phnom Penh, and joy of joys I have been unwell again.  As my mother rather astutely pointed out “You might love Cambodia, but Cambodia doesn’t really love you!”  This is true.  However, as I have said before, I’d rather be here and unwell, than feeling fine physically but back in the cube.  Yesterday was the first day I felt up to going out so I headed to the north of the city to visit the Somaly Mam shelter, something I have been dying to do.  Unfortunately, they don’t work on Sundays, so I couldn’t go in!  The guy I spoke to sent me to their office a few streets away to talk to someone else, which I did and got to meet two of the girls who were just incredibly lovely.  However they had the same thing to say, and couldn’t even take a donation on site.  They said “come back to tomorrow!” meaning today, however I am leaving for Vietnam in an hour and wouldn’t have had time to get out there, spend some decent time and come back.  Pretty gutted, but trying to be pragmatic about it.  I’ll be back to Cambodia anyway, and with any luck Somaly isn’t going ANYWHERE.

If you would like to know more about her work here, there is an incredible documentary about child sexploitation called Redlight, which showcases her work alongside a female politician here, and some rescued girls.  It’s informative and interesting, although harrowing at times.  You can watch the entire doco in five parts on YouTube.  Click here to open up part one.

I do have a few photos from KC, but haven’t had time to upload, so I’ll pop them on facebook in the next few days and then include the link in my next blog.

Goodbye Cambodia, it's been wonderful!  Helloooo Vietnam.

Til next we speak,

*LOVE*

N

 

 

Waste Not, Want Not

Distance Traveled:   14,510 kms (BNE-MEL-SYD-BKK-PKT-BKK-CNX-BKK-PP-SR-BB)

Flags Collected:   0
Time Difference: -3 hours (from Brisbane)

Soundtrack:  Nothing in particular

Currently Inspired by:  Sunset over Battambang :)

Stacks:   None which is incredible considering the weird places I've been walking / clambering.  Perhaps I'm becoming more sure footed!

Words written:   12,372 (being stuck inside is good for the book)

First things first – in a previous blog while talking about the waterfalls in Doi Inthanon, Thailand I called one of them by an incorrect name.  It is actually called Wacharithan, and you can click here to see a video of it.

I am typing this in Word and will copy across when I have internet.  I thought the connection sucked at some of the previous hotels I have been in, but this place takes the cake!  The power has gone off about six times in the last 12 hours (that I know of) also.  It’s a clear message to get outside. Unfortunately outside is roughly as hot as the surface of the sun and I’d like to keep my skin for a little longer.  So I’m sitting in my room with the air con on full bore, still sweating my arse off, waiting for an hour or so before I venture out on this afternoon’s temple and cave adventure!

I haven’t done a HUGE amount since last I wrote, because I spent days locked away from the humidity in my various rooms as a result of my ear infection, which despite two (very expensive) visits to the hospital, somehow managed to turn into infections, plural.  My right ear, the first to get infected, is slowly getting better but the left is slowly getting worse.  I’m sure there is a doctor somewhere in this one horse town but frankly I’d rather self medicate until I get somewhere less... err... rustic.  I do like Battambang though, very much.  It’s smaller and and more compact than anywhere I’ve been which means crossing the road is slightly less of a death defiance stunt.

Back to Siem Reap... As I mentioned in my previous blog, Angkor Wat was unfortunately the last item on my tour agenda that I was able to do, which was fairly annoying. In hindsight, I have to say... If someone had just plucked me out of Australia and plonked me down on the grounds I think my mind would have been blown.  As it was, I did really really like it, but I’d already done so many amazing things here that it really just did seem like another temple, albeit the most impressive one I’ve seen.  My favourite part was actually navigating our way through it with torches before the sun came up.  We came in the back way to avoid tourists so it really did feel like just us until we got to the viewing point on the other side of the lake.  So yes, Angkor Wat is definitely a "tick it off" experience that I recommend to anyone, but if you are coming to Cambodia, don't just tick stuff off.  See the countryside, the beaches, go where there aren't many tourists and meet the locals.  That's where the real beauty is in this country.

The final tour activity was on Tuesday night, and was dinner and a traditional Khmer dancing show down the road from where we were staying.  It was a nice evening, but I didn’t take any photos or videos because the entire thing was virtually undistinguishable from the Kantoke Palace dinner and show that I attended in Chiang Mai.  I mean, the way they were introduced, the whole set up of the night, the dancing.  There were some costume differences, but that’s all I really noticed.  They simply have to be run by the same company, I'm thinking.  The food selection was insane, a whole bunch of different Asian cuisines and western / European food also.  You can see a bunch of different bits and bobs here in my food album.  The next night was our last evening altogether.  It was a lovely night, but twas sad to say goodbye to Betty, Chris and Eve.  It was a fun 11 days!  Guys if you're reading this, we'll definitely have a beer when I'm in London!

The boat trip from Siem Reap to Battambang was damn fantastic.  I would like to now transcribe from my pen and paper notes from the boat, which upon reading back, sounds like  Wiki entry!  Sorry about that:

The Tonle Sap lake is an incredible body of water which is both a lake and river system.  You could call it the lifeblood of Cambodia.  Each year, as the monsoon season hits it breaks its banks and swells, completely flooding all the land under it, usually around some additional 14,000 square kilometres of forest and fields.  Ever adaptable, the Cambodians build 2 types of houses on the banks of the Tonle Sap: houses on stilts and houses on floating bamboo rafts.  The houses on the wooden rafts float along the edges of the lake no matter where it happens to be.  These people fish in the abundant waters all year round, in what is known to be one of the richest freshwater fishing grounds in the world, providing 75% of Cambodia's fish intake.  These floating houses collect in villages, along with floating shops etc.  Those in stilt houses weather the floods in a dry fashion, more or less (less, this year), and fish through the wet season.  During the dry season when the waters have receded, they plants crops in the nutrient rich soil left under and around their homes.  Hence both seasons are used to the best of their productive ability, without needing to cause headaches for the mailman.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Nothing is wasted here.  They eat or use every part of animals.  Their boats, cars, tuk-tuks and bikes are always loaded until they’re groaning.  Case in point: for the bus pickup to the Siem Reap docks there were 13 of us and our bags, crammed into a little 7 seater minibus.  You should have seen the driver stacking us all in, he would be awesome at Tetris.  The photo below is taken from the boat.  You can see some fairly dense vegetation and what looks like bushes next to those houses.  These are floating houses, that vegetation is floating vegetation and the bushes are the tops of trees.  The floating vegetation and houses tend to get caught around the tops of the trees, and the trees adapt to the excess water.  If you stood out on the middle of all that vegetation, you'd fall right through into the water.

The boat trip took about 6.5 hours, a relatively short trip, I’m given to understand, because the waters are quite high this year.  It was strange to think that the majority of the water we were boating on to get to Battambang just isn’t there for a chunk of the year.  The boat was overloaded and downstairs was full and noisy, so a stack of us went upstairs and sat on the roof with the bags.  As you can imagine, we all got completely cooked in the sun from above, and if you moved off your little patch, your butt and legs got cooked by the metal roof that had heated up around you.  There were Germans, Frenchies, Kiwis, Pommies, Polish folk and Israelis (and yours truly, representing Australia).  It was like a United Nations bake sale, and you know I never complain about the heat.  I was sitting next to a lovely French girl called, rather unfortunately, France.  Apparently her father is a mad rugby fan and there was some kind of grand final on the year she was born.  Child abuse!  She was very sweet though and I was very happy that I had the opportunity to use some of the tiny amount of French I knew to be able to exclaim “Il fait chaud!” (It is very hot!)  After the lake we ended up on the Tonle Sap river portion of the trip, which was an incredible experience.  Life just goes on here, I imagine in exactly the same way as it has for hundreds of years.  The people crouch there, balanced on the very tip of their long narrow boats, feeding out fishing nets or bringing them in.  Scores of the most gorgeous children you've ever seen, naked as the day they were born, jump straight from their thatched huts on the bank into the water to play in the waves made by our boat.  They frantically wave and call out "BAI BAI!!" to us.  Everyone smiles and waves, it's like the Asian Stepford.  Check it out below.

To see more photos from the lake and river trip, click here

Battambang is cuuuuuute.  A couple of people that I’ve spoken to since I’ve been here have found it dirty and uninspiring, but I can’t really see that.  The sunsets here are worth the trip.  Yesterday I watched one from the roof of my hotel, and today I watched one from the top of a mountain.

Sunset over Battambang from my hotel (left) and from the top of the mountain (right)

Today was bittersweet.  A fellow boat traveller and I hired a tuk tuk to take us to a ruined, pre-Angkorian temple (so over a thousand years old).  It was actually very cool.  I prefer ruins to actual functional temples, I suppose because with ruins, your imagination can fill in the gaps.  It was impressive at any rate, as were the stairs that led up to it.  I am not sure how many there were, but I’m going to guess somewhere in the vicinity of 400, and they were extremely high, crumbly steps and incredibly steep, almost vertical by the time you get to the top.  Several breaks were required to get there.  Below is what I saw from the bottom:

Steeling myself, I hauled my sorry butt up there in a few stages, and triumphantly hauled my screaming legs over the top step, only to be confronted with the below:

"Are you freaking kidding me??" would be a polite way to describe the thoughts that were going through my head at this point.

Once (finally) at the top I explored the ruins and was approached by some very young monks, probably in their late teens or early twenties.  I was quite excited about this because I’ve wanted to speak to the Buddhist monks or take photos with them and I’ve felt too embarrassed to do so, and here were three of them, basically swarming me and asking me all sorts of questions about Australia and what do I think of Cambodia etc.  Then they said “please can we take a photo with you?” and they took turns standing next to me while one of the others took photos.  Like I was the interesting one!  It made me laugh, and of course I had the presence of mind to get him to take photos with my camera too, so now I have the pictures that I wanted and I didn’t even have to ask!  Upon later reflection in the tuk tuk, I started feeling quite itchy and paranoid that there was something inappropriate about my appearance and perhaps they were taking photos to say “look at the tits on her!” to the other monks later. In active temples here you have to wear a shirt with sleeves and skirts or shorts below the knee or they won’t let you in (because women’s bodies are shameful and disgusting, didn’t you know).  However this was an inactive temple and technically you couldn’t even go “inside” so I felt perfectly comfortable wearing a tank top and shorts above the knee to it. Hmm.  It is entirely possible that I’m over-thinking the situation.  I guess they just study hard and don’t get out much to meet people.

That was one of the sweet parts.  The bitter came from a visit to the Killing Caves up in the mountain.  It’s just like a Killing Field and used for the same purpose, except it is a very high cave with a hole at the top, that the Khmer Rouge used to march people up to and throw them into.  The bones are still there, just as they are at Cheong Euk, the killing field that I visited.  This place was worse, somehow.  We all felt ill and upset at the killing fields, but in the dark of cave looking at the bones I felt seriously nauseated and claustrophobic, and got a bit panicky for a bit.  My brain wanted to stay and absorb the experience but my skeleton was trying to jump out of my skin and take off back up to the top.  The energy at these places is seriously awful.  I’m glad though, that I saw it.  I’m always glad that these poor people who never did anything to anyone, and were separated from their families and killed while frightened and alone, are acknowledged.  So many people have died through genocide while the world is completely oblivious to what’s going on.  How terrifying that this can happen to anyone.  Wouldn’t be constantly searching the skies for help to arrive?  Then you have genocide that people are aware of, such as in Rwanda, and no one does a damn thing about it, thanks very much United Nations.  Pack of useless fucking bureaucrats.  Wasn’t the UN formed predominantly to prevent genocide from ever happening again after WWII?  Let’s rate their effectiveness on a scale from one to ten, shall we?

After the caves we went right up to the summit of the mountain.  We each got driven up there by a motorbike a) because it was 1,200 steps to the top and b) we wouldn’t have made it by sunset.  There is a viewing platform surrounded by a variety of temple buildings and I watched the sun go down over the mountains near the border of Thailand.  It was truly stunning.  However Dan, my travel companion for the day, went elsewhere to watch it and I found out later that there were a bunch of monks watching it with him, as well as whole heap of wild MONKEYS, who came down and sat there near them just to watch it as well.  And one of the monkeys mugged a monk who was carrying a bag of mangoes and stole them off him, from under his robes!  I nearly died of jealousy.  Before I knew that, I was perfectly happy with my own experience.  Argh, it still stings a bit.  Down the bottom of the mountain we watched millions upon millions of tiny bats fly out of the mountain and into the night, no doubt to go off and feast on insects and the like.  It was pretty incredible.  There was strong, steady stream of them pouring out of the mountainside for maybe ten or fifteen minutes.  Seriously, millions.

For photos of Battambang and its surrounds, click here

The above was all very sweet. Some more bitter... very very unfortunately, on the road on the way back there had been a crash between a car and a motorbike with two people on it, and the two people on the bike died.  We were warned as we were leaving by one of the villagers that it had just happened and indeed we did pass the scene of the accident very quickly, before any emergency services were there, and saw one of the dead bodies face down on the ground, missing a leg.  There were people screaming and crying, and it was pretty horrific.  That was the first dead person I have seen so it was disturbing, and neither of us really spoke for a 45 minutes or so back to Battambang.

So it's been a very interesting week or so.  I have been reading a fairly comprehensive book regarding the politics of the Khmer Rouge.  I wanted a scholarly rather than sensational book but I've gone as little too far in my choice as it reads like a textbook and is full of names and places I have never heard of, heavily annotated and referenced, so I am finding it tough going.  Something I am prepared to say though is that Cambodia's political history is unbelievably complicated.  Learning about it raises more questions than it answers!  It seems everyone has had a crack at this place at some point: the French, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese.  How many people know that the US carpet bombed Cambodia during the Vietnam War ostensibly to "flush out" Vietnamese communists?  How successful do you think that campaign was?  It was certainly successful in murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent Cambodians who had no idea why they were being bombed.  Collateral damage, indeed.  It was partly this action by "the imperialists" that enabled Pol Pot's regime to flourish.  His propaganda machine promised an end to the bombings.  So when the Khmer Rouge took over and "liberated" the cities, the civilians lined the streets in welcome parades, cheering and supportive.  The next day they were mass evacuated from their homes, hospitals, schools, jobs and work, and sent on death marches out into communist co-operatives in the country, where over one fifth of Cambodian's population (1.7 million, est) died either through overwork, starvation, torture or plain old execution over the next four years.  One of the directives from Central was wherever possible to find alternatives to guns for killing, such as overwork and starvation, beating or using the sharp bark of palm trees to saw their heads off, because their lives were worth "less than a bullet".  When I say nothing is wasted here, it has negative connotations also.

I am leaving here tomorrow and have decided to head to a little town called Kampong Chnnag for a couple of days before heading to Phnom Penh and visiting the Somaly Mam shelter.  Last 7 days in Cambodia! I don't want to leave  :(  I am currently considering getting a boat down the Mekong into Vietnam, however I shall decide when I get there.

Til next we speak,
*LOVE*
N

Gods of Emo

Distance Traveled:   14,340 kms (BNE-MEL-SYD-BKK-PKT-BKK-CNX-BKK-PP-SR)

Flags Collected:   0
Time Difference: -3 hours (from Brisbane)

Soundtrack:  Kate Bush and Santana - a weird combo but they are both helping me flesh out the romance I will have in my book.

Currently Inspired by:  Somaly Mam.  Have been reading stuff about her.  She's a goddess.

Stacks:   None but am in plenty of pain from my ear!

Words written:   7,532 

It's been a fabulous week.  One of the English ladies on my tour, Betty, is 82 years old and here on her own.  She's amazing!  She has done almost every bit of hiking, clambering up and down hills and through caves and other physical experiences that we have all done, and still manages to have enough energy at night to drink whiskey like a fish, smoke like a chimney and make me laugh :)  What a character!  I love her.  Eve and Chris are the other couple so there are five of us, and they're great too.  Chris and I are always quoting Monty Python and Douglas Adams at each other.  They're all so ENGLISH! I do love me a bit o' dry humour.
We met our guide on Sunday night, Phaly (pronounced Polly) who was so cute and sweet!  She knew a ridiculous amount of history and would list names and dates endlessly at every site we were at.  I was unable to take the majority of it in, but she was really very knowledgable.  Monday we headed off on a cyclo tour of Phnon Penh city.  Cyclos are seats with a bicycle behind them, like a reverse rickshaw.  Taking these unprotected vehicles through Phnom Penh traffic is an adventure in itself!  Fun, though.  We did quite a bit that day, actually.  The royal palace was just beautiful.  One of the buildings was a silver pagoda, so named because the floor tiles are made of pure silver.  This temple contains a statue of Buddha made of 90 kilograms of pure gold, and containing 9,000 diamonds, including a 25 carat one in its crown.  I know that religion is very important to Cambodians, but I couldn't help but wonder how many houses it would buy for street beggars, how many disability pensions it could create for the lepers with no hands or legs and no help from the government, or how many children it could feed.  A trip to an art history museum and the child safe centre where we learned how to deal with street children as tourists were next.  The idea is that buying anything from these children or giving money to the begging children, keeps them on the streets.  They suggested rather donating to them or other aid organisations who provide practical assistance.  I saw the sense of it, but it is tough to say no to these gorgeous little kids!  I want to bring them all home with me!!!  They are so different to bratty, entitled Western kids :)  At lunch I tried my first Amok, which is a traditional Khmer curry that is sweeter and more fragrant than the Thai curries.  I've had a few since.

*possibly upsetting content below*
The afternoon was harrowing.  We visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.  The building was originally a school, and then upon the Khmer Rouge taking power was used as a prison, the most notorious of all of their prisons called S-21.  Of the 17,000 prisoners who were brought their for interrogation, torture and eventually sent to be slaughtered in the nearby killing field, only 7 survived, prisoners who had been removed earlier.  The final 14 prisoners were murdered as the Vietnamese were liberating the country and are buried in graves in the museum grounds.  Our guide Phaly was 8 years old when her family was displaced, separated and sent to work in various fields for the next three years.  She nearly died of starvation several times, and her brother, who stole some food, was apparently caught and tortured to death in front of the other workers as a lesson.  Her aunts and uncles who were there told her parents after they were all released and reunited.  She considers herself very lucky that she only lost one family member.  Considering that the Khmer Rouge killed over one fifth of the country's population in just four years, losing only one family member was pretty rare. NB: People often refer to the "Khmer" when they mean Khmer Rouge.  It's important to use the full name, as Khmer just means "Cambodian".  It's how the people here refer to themselves and their language.  The next morning we visited the nearby killing field that I referred to earlier, actually quite a visually pretty little spot with the most dreadful vibe and energy to it.  We all felt ill and depressed there.  Because of the recent rains a lot more bones and clothes have been washed up towards the surface and as they just leave them there now we were actually walking on them... I was very careful to watch my feet as we were going, because I couldn't bear the idea of walking on a human being like that.  I won't get into the politics of the killings because I will be discussing the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot in more detail in my rant at the bottom, but it was an intensely painful and personal story that Phaly shared with us in those two locations and I was profoundly grateful to her and wanted to share it with you.  So many people have heard of the killing fields but don't really know what it was about.  I think it's important that the 1.7 million victims or more are acknowledged.  I have created a separate facebook album with a warning on it specifically for the killing fields and genocide museum.  If you are easily upset or traumatised, I wouldn't look at it.  It is very informative though, so if you are interested in knowing more then click here to have a look.

The next day was derailed because a scheduled boat trip was not able to take place.  The man who owned the boat had hired it to another group who arrived before us, despite having booked it and confirmed for us.  It's an interesting attitude I've seen a couple of times.  The dollar is king here, and probably the other group had more people = more money.  I was surprised that he would tick off a tour company though, because surely they give him a lot of business.  When I queried it with Phaly she said that he was making enough money from prawns right now and didn't really care about the boats.  What an odd, short-sighted idea, and it certainly gives you an insight into the mindset of some of the "service" industry in Asia.  It's driven only by money, not out of a desire to provide a good service or have a good reputation.  I guess that's a direct result of living in such poverty... Any takers on that idea?  We ended up in a cute beachside town called Kep with the beach view direct from our rooms, and the following day drove around the town, looking at abandoned homes, most of which still had some structure standing but some of which were completely burnt or razed to the ground during the war.  People just can't afford to fix them, so they stand there like scars on the landscape.  One of the king's old residences from during the French occupation was riddled with bullet holes through all the walls.  We chatted to the caretaker families who live there and they let us walk through, despite the efforts of the Attack Geese and Attack Puppies that set about our feet as we came up the stairs! :D  An afternoon boat trip down Kampot River was not as relaxing as it sounds, due to the ridiculously high water level in the bottom of the boat that kept my nerves thrumming for the majority of the trip.  Our driver had a wee hand pump and would pump out some water now and again, although the level never really went down.  I've never been happier to get back on land, I can tell you!  Betty had trouble getting off the boat because we pulled up at a beach and it was a bit of a jump, so these strong young Cambodian fishermen in these sort of loin clothy type things lifted her down and carried her like a Queen!  I should have pretended to have trouble ;P

The caves are incredible here.  We went to two lots of them.  At the first lot, there were two of the cutest monkeys I've ever seen in a tree near us who came down and chittered at us for a bit.  After walking through the caves you walk out into this circular - I don't even know how to describe it really - rock formation, incredibly high, and you can stand in the bare circular part in the middle and just look in awe at these sheer walls around you, most of which have been slightly carved out at the bottom by water, so you can walk under them.  The second cave contained a tiny, pre-Angkorian temple and was accessed by 203 steps.  I don't think I've ever felt so hot in my life as I did that day.  Everything I was wearing was completely soaking wet with sweat.  My "guide" was a local boy called Dara, who wants to study IT and get a job in Phnom Penh one day.  I really hope he does.  We also stopped at a local school as well and visited the English classes.  They can all say "hello, how are you?" and that's about it.  It's heartening to see poor children in school rather than out begging and I feel it should be wholeheartedly encouraged.  If anyone has any second hand primary school English class resources like books or learning cards or anything like that, that they would be happy to donate to this school, please let me know and I can get the address.  They need everything desperately.  To check out the photos of everything I have just described, click here.

Sihanoukville was a groovy little beach town that we stopped in next.  Previously the "Second city of Cambodia" (now taken over by Siem Reap), it was full of tourists and funky little beach bars with tables and chairs on the sand.  We basically just baked ourselves, drank lots and set off fireworks on the beach.  Good times.  Before arriving there we went up Bor Kor mountain and visited some long abandoned buildings - another king's residence, a rather incongruous Catholic Church which now has people squatting in it, and a crumbling old hotel and casino.  The view from the top was worth the trek!  The day after we arrived we headed on a boat down the river through Ream National Park, where I had a great chat with a young park ranger called Pisiat who told me a lot about the park and also about Cambodian culture.  He's determined to marry "for love" when he's older and can afford the bride price, which gives me the impression that love marriages are still less common than arranged / business transaction type ones.  The 1.5 hour boat trip, the water, everything was stunning.  After we disembarked and walked through the jungle for about 45 minutes, we should have come out at the beach.  However due to the rains the paths had changed, and we ended up taking a wrong route through the jungle and off the path.  Phaly, who was walking in front of me, walked into a spider web and the spider ran off along the ground.  Someone who is less arachnophobic than I might have even described it as pretty - it was big but skinny and had red legs and colours on its back.  However from that moment on the walk was completely ruined for me and I wanted to get the HELL out of there.  We got lost, hit a stream that we couldn't cross, backtracked past bushes with big, snake sounding things rustling in them and a massive wasps nest which really freaked Phaly out, got bitten by millions of these nasty red ants, and finally popped out on this baking red road in the middle of the day's heat and had to walk another ten minutes or so before getting to the beach.  Phaly told us later when we were leaving that the spider we encountered had a deadly bite.  I'm so glad I didn't know that before.

The beach was worth the effort, and I'm from Queensland.  It was, in one simple word, paradise.  There was hardly anybody else there (probably due to its inaccessibility!) and I hope it stays that way, although the locals who run the restaurant probably disagree.  It was a huge blinding white stretch of sand on a hot blue day, clear green water that sparkled like millions of emeralds, gentle waves and basically an ocean to ourselves!  It was ridiculously blissful, I felt my pleasure centres on overload.  In addition we had stopped at a supermarket in the morning and bought some sandwich stuff so we had yummy sandwiches (something I've been craving) and beer.  Can anyone think of a more perfect day?  There is just so much beauty in Cambodia, both beaches and inland in the all the different country areas that we drove through.  Sometimes it became a little overwhelming, particularly on top of all the sadness and pity we had been feeling earlier in the week.  To see photos of these areas, click here.

On Saturday we said a sad goodbye to Phaly and flew up to Siem Reap to met our new guide, a guy called Janny.  He advised us that we'd have to meet at 4.45am to catch sunrise over Angkor Wat and I nearly burst with excitement!  Finally, the place I have been dying to see.  In the morning we caught tuk tuks to the temple, and walked in through the back way with our torches.  It was so dark (aren't we used to electricity!) and eerily quiet as we walked through part of the temple, a perfect setup to the morning's activities.  When we arrived on the other side we saw the millions of tourists at the viewing point on the other side of the pond (so you can get the temple reflected in the water).  Then we waited until the sun came up!  It took about forty minutes in all, and I have photos of quite a few stages.  It was absolutely breathtaking, and I could imagine the ancient Cambodians coming there to worship.  It was as religious an experience as an agnostic person could have I suppose!  Unfortunately that's where my day had to end as my ear became unbearable.  I have missed the other three temples, lake trip and cooking class that were also scheduled.  I have decided to stay in Siem Reap until Saturday so perhaps when I'm feeling better I can do some of the other sights.  To see all the Angkor photos, click here.

As this has been such a long blog, I have decided not to rant about Pol Pot today.  Next time.  I am also reading a fairly comprehensive book on the subject which I am hoping will provide me with some answers to my question of "WHY?" which is currently beyond my understanding.

Til Next We Speak
*LOVE*
N

NOTE: Why are there so many headless Buddha and other religious statues in my photos?  Most of the ones we have seen thus far were desecrated by the Khmer Rouge who were quite anti-religion.  As for the ones at Angkor, no one is really sure, but possibly it was done by nearby poor people who wanted to sell them as souvenirs of the site.

The Culture Shock Club

Distance Traveled:   14,020 kms (BNE-MEL-SYD-BKK-PKT-BKK-CNX-BKK-PP)

Flags Collected:   0
Time Difference: -3 hours (from Brisbane)

Soundtrack:  Haven't had time to listen to music!

Currently Inspired by:   "A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes"

Stacks:   Woohoo!  Finally had a few, and no broken bones.  Slid on some wet concrete in BKK and landed on my butt, and tripped up some stairs and landed on my knees.  Some nice bruises, which in the tradition of my bruises, should still be there by the time I get back to Australia :-/

Words written:   7,532

I cannot believe it's been over a week already since my last post.  WHERE IS THE TIME GOING?? I was planning to do about one of these blogs a month... yeah right, I can barely remember what I did three days ago!  Am having to go through my diary and my photos (thank god for photos).  Alright, this isn't going to be a sequential one because I'm so goddamn pissed off right now I need to rant about what's going on at the minute and then I can get to the fun stuff.

Calling what has gone on in the last couple of days an "unfortunate confluence of events" would be like referring to the Vietnam war as "a bit of a scrap".  I am feeling at my least adventurous today.  Crushed in spirit.  Craving people who speak English perfectly, non-dangerous transport, menus that I understand (or just the ability to make a damn sandwich would be nice) and toilets that flush or that you don't have to squat over (I'm five foot TEN people. It has not been fun).

...Three hours, a lovely dinner, some friendly conversation and two Jameson and sodas after writing that last paragraph...

...I no longer have the spleen to vent.  However the circumstances do deserve an airing, so I shall discuss them matter-of-factly.  Yesterday, I arrived in Phnom Penh and was collected at the airport by a driver arranged by IndoChina Travel (the people I am doing my tour with) and taken to the hotel that was also arranged by IndoChina Travel for my stay.  I went to withdraw Cambodian riel (the national currency) at the airport and discovered to my chagrin that the atm only dispensed US dollars.  So I withdrew USD, then went to the exchange counter and changed for riel at a rate of 1 USD = 3,800 riel.  Got to the hotel - it's nice, quite swanky, and I was only mildly annoyed when the toilet kept running and overflowed all over my bathroom floor and I had to call them twice to fix it because they didn't do it properly the first time.  I looked at the paperwork that was handed to me by the rep which had info on my tour, which was ostensibly starting today (Sunday), and discovered that the tour itself wasn't starting until Monday and we were just meeting in the hotel foyer to discuss the itinerary on Sunday night.  Wondering why I had only received 1 breakfast voucher when clearly the tour company would have booked me here for my entire stay (no?) I went to reception and was informed that no, I was only booked in for one night.  So I was bewildered but calm, thought "ok, oversight" and tried to book another night in the hotel.  However the receptionist advised me that they would charge me too much to book over the counter and I should go on the internet and find a better deal, or get IndoChina, who booked my first room, too book the others for me.

I was feeling a little stressed at this stage, and annoyed, the way any particularly organised person gets annoyed in the face of such blatant incompetence and poor customer service.  So I emailed IndoChina in the hope they may clear things up for me and I wouldn't have to book and pay separately.  "Was not all my accommodation from when I landed in Phnom Penh included in the price I paid for the tour??" I wondered.  Three emails, one phone message and 16 hours later I had not received a reply and needed to check out of my room in 2 hours so I went online to a service called Agoda (great for booking cheaper rate rooms in Asia) and went to book my room for one more night when it occured to me to check the itinerary one more time.  Yes, the tour started on Monday, but we didn't actually leave Phnom Penh until Wednesday, according to the paperwork.  So I needed three more nights, not one.  It was then I noticed there was no itinerary for Tuesday, it just jumped straight from Monday to Wednesday.  So I'm like "Are we leaving on Wednesday and they've skipped Tuesday's itinerary, or are we leaving on Tuesday and they have the days wrong, because this affects how many nights I am booking for!!"  I sent one more email in the vain hope of receiving a reply, and emailed and vented to my Australian travel agent also (even though it was Sunday and I knew she couldn't do anything).  Finally, I decided to book until Tuesday and then just book an extra night if I needed it.  I did, went to reception to give them the voucher number, they received my booking and we were all set.  UNTIL... about 5 o'clock I received a phone call from my tour guide changing the meeting time for tonight, which was fine, followed almost immediately by a phone call from reception, saying that they had received a double booking for me, because IndoChina had booked me a room until Tuesday and they had also received an Agoda booking for me for the next two nights, so I needed to go online and cancel my Agoda booking.  I patiently explained that their staff had told me I was only booked for one night and in fact only given me one breakfast voucher at check-in and he didn't care.  He said if I didn't cancel the Agoda booking they would have to charge me twice (????) Riiiiight.  So I went online to use Agoda's self help cancellation service, but because it was the same day as the booking, it wouldn't permit me to do it and I had to email their customer service, who I am still waiting to hear back from.

I went out today, took a tuk tuk ride through the city to check it out and went for lunch at an awesome restaurant called Friends which takes street kids and retrains them in hospitality.  The food and service were excellent (dear by Cambodian standards but a worthy cause) and I had a great time doing a tour of the city.  The traffic is so much more crazy here than anywhere else I've been I feel safer in a vehicle than walking, because at least I don't have to cross a road on foot!  See pics from the back of the tuk tuk tour by clicking here.  Unfortunately on the way back we smashed quite hard into a bike with a guy and a girl on it and they both went flying and rolling onto the street.  It was pretty scary, particularly because a) they wear no safety gear here b) all the other million of bikes and tuk tuks and cars were just speeding around them and c) the girl took ages to get up.  Turns out they were OK, but my driver just stopped in the middle of the road, went up to them, a witness said the bike smashed into us, so they just nodded at each other basically and we drove off.  No information exchange, nothing.

Then when I got back my toilet flooded the bathroom again. (It's not me, I swear.  I'm not even flushing toilet paper!  It goes in the bin here.  Gross, but necessary).

So that's that stuff.  Now onto the money.  Remember I said I exchanged my US dollars (that I already paid conversion fees on from my AUD) for the national currency, riel for 3,800 riel per dollar?  Well, turns out they accept US dollars EVERYWHERE here, and in fact it's the preferred currency, and you get penalised for using riel, to the tune of 200 riel per US dollar (exchange for purchases: 1 USD = 4,000 riel).  Unless of course, you're in a swanky establishment (such as say, my hotel) where the exchange for purchases is 1 USD = 4,100 riel.  This means in essence that I am getting ripped off 300 riel for every USD I spend.  You can imagine I'm not impressed.  We're still not talking huge amounts of cash, but it's the principle!  Especially when traveling on the Aussie dollar is supposed to be so great.

*sigh*


Those are my annoying things, but like I said I feel pretty fine now and have no doubt that after a good night's sleep and the prospect of my exciting tour starting tomorrow, I will wake up fine and bouncy and not homesick at all.  So!  Onto the fun stuff...

I miss Chaing Mai :)  What an amazing time I had there!  Of course you know all about the tigers and elephants and temples and floating lanterns etc etc, but in my last week I had two more really fantastic experiences and met some more lovely people.

Cooking Classes.  I recommend this as a great skill builder and also just a really really fun and awesome day out for anyone travelling to Asia. Met two awesome couples over here on their honeymoons and made (and ate) 6 fabulous dishes and a curry paste from scratch with the cutest teacher who first picked us up and took us to the fresh markets where we got to touch and smell all the different herbs and ingredients we'd be using and learn about all their properties.  I made: pad thai, prawns in tamarind sauce, chicken in coconut milk soup, spring rolls, pa nang curry (with paste from scratch) and sticky rice with mango.  Definitely doing cooking classes in Cambodia and in Vietnam also.  Hello, dinner parties?!?!?!  Unfortunately the Aussies will have to wait until next October next year.  Londonians, look out!  You'll be my guinea pigs!  You can see just the dishes I cooked here in my food album, as well as the dishes I had at Friends restaurant today.

Doi Inthanon.  Click here to read more about this mountain / national park if you wish.  I went with my friend Amy, who I met in CM the week before.  It was fabulous.  A gorgeous mountain, very high (I think we were at about 2,600 metres at one point?) and full of the most gorgeous jungle.  I am fairly certain I saw Blyton's Enchanted Faraway Tree in there.  I looked up to see if I could see Moonface and Silky but our guide walked too fast and I couldn't stop and stare.  I'm pretty sure I saw a cloud moving suspiciously at the top though.  I wonder what world it was going to? :)  We stopped at two waterfalls, Siri Than and Watari Than (although I can't remember the name exactly), 40metres and 35 metres tall respectively.  Watari Than seemed a lot taller however because we were able to get so close to it (close enough to get drenched!)  It was a pretty fabulous day.  To see the photos of the Cooking School and of the trip to Doi Inthanon, click here.

It is now Wednesday, and this blog left off last Friday.  I am going to leave it here except to say that on Friday I flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok (no I didn't see any water on the ground, but HEAPS from the plane), stayed in Bangkok for one more night and then flew to Phnom Penh on Saturday, where I proceeded to have those experiences outlined at the beginning.  I will try and send a blog next Sunday with everything I have done this week, because it's a shitload already, and I also need to say that I freaking LOVE Cambodia now, and everyone in it! (Almost). It's been annoying, scary, frustrating and very very sad so far at times, but also warm and loving and sweet and friendly heart-string-tugging and if I don't come home with a Cambodian baby or three in tow then it means for whatever reason it was impossible. :)  Can't wait to tell you all about it!

However, I also have three massive issues I need to rant about and have decided to keep them "separate" from the blog for the overly sensitive or stick-head-in-sand types who don't want to hear about it.  Anyone who has known me for more than five minutes should realise that I am virtually incapable of going to to third world country and blogging nothing but "this is what I saw today, tralalala", so here it is.  Up front, the three issues I want to rant about are 1. Sex trafficking in SE Asia 2. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot and 3. The treatment of animals in third world countries.  I will do one each, for the next three blogs, starting with sex trafficking now.  Types mentioned above, please stop reading NOW, please don't read, get upset and then bitch at me, because you were warned. 

The Sex Trafficking Industry

Let's look worldwide to begin with.  Apparently, the sex trafficking industry is worth an estimated $12 billion worldwide, annually.  I speak of sex trafficking specifically because it is also estimated that 80% of human slave trafficking is for sexual purposes, and of those 80%, an estimated 92% are female, and a massive percentage of those females are under 16 years of age.  In Cambodia, it is estimated that there are 100,000 prostitutes (in a country with 14 million people), and that over 60% of them are HIV positive, and about the same number are underage.  A much larger percentage of those are unwilling victims of the sex trafficking trade.  To give it some real perspective, a fabulous NY Time Journalist who I wholeheartedly endorse, Nicholas Kristof, is currently filming a doco in Cambodia about sex trafficking and is interviewing Somaly Mam.  If you don't know about this absolutely incredible human being, click here to learn .  She is truly inspiring.  So one of the girls she saved is a young child who was sold by her family at age 6, locked in a brothel and raped every single night for three years, by at the very least 15 men, usually more.  From ages 6 - 9.  Whenever she tried to escape she was brutally tortured.  Escape she did, however, at age 9 and with the help of Somaly and is currently trying to rebuild her life.

As horrifying and touching as this girl's personal story is, it got me wondering about statistics.  We talk about the number of women / girls, the finances involved... why do we never talk about the men?  Because even if some of them were repeat customers coming back for more, times 15 (at least) men per night, x 365, x 3, and the numbers looks pretty scary.  And that's for ONE six year old girl.  How many of these girls / women are there out there right now?  We know of at least 100,000 in Cambodia.  So times that number by 100,000, then use the ratio of 100,000 to 14,000,000 to work out a possible worldwide figure, and what you end up with is an absolutely terrifying number of men who are willing to a. engage in sexual activity with a prostitute or b. enagage in forced sexual activity with a prostitute, c. engage in forced sexual activity with a child or d. all of the above.  Don't kid yourselves.  Guys who think nothing of going to SE Asia and paying $20 for a bj are at the very least guilty of the most incredible selfishness and thoughtlessness.  NONE of it is harmless.  Every dollar that goes towards that industry simply perpetuates the abject human misery involved in its victims, whether or not the actual prostitute appears to be "willing" or not.  It is a disgusting activity, and yes absolutely I judge the men who participate in it.  The lowest end of the scale is obtaining services from an apparently willing adult, the worst end of the scale is rape / peodophilia / abuse / kidnapping / pimping.  They may be at opposite ends, but they are still on the same scale, because they both support the industry.

Most of us probably think we don't know anyone who has ever harmed a woman either through domestic violence or accessing a brothel.  Again, don't kid yourselves.  I don't know if it is a self preservation thing or what, but we tend to paint these people as a whole as these faceless psychopaths with a stamp on their forehead saying "wife beater", "peodophile", "rapist".  It isn't so.  All these men are someone's brother, cousin, uncle, father, friend, workmate.  Statistically speaking, if you have met 40 men in your life, 10 of them have harmed a woman in some capacity in their lifetime, even if it was a slap across the face or copping a feel on some passed out girl at university.  We need to stop thinking that these things are separate incidents.  THEY ARE ALL AS UNACCEPTABLE AS EACH OTHER.  Women deserve to have the power to choose what they do with their own bodies and children should ALWAYS be safe from this kind of predation.  Unfortunately, here the dollar is king, and there are more than a few corrupt officials who are happy to turn a blind eye to the sex trafficking trade in order to receive kickbacks from it.

What can I do?  I hear you ask.  Well, I'm glad to answer.  Respected organsiations such as Amnesty International are very active in this kind of area and of course Somaly Mam, who helps by giving practical help (such as soap and condoms, things are not supplied) and advice to women in brothels and also is responsible for several raids on brothels that are known to contain children, taking those children and helping them to rebuild their lives.  You can help her organisation by donating (a small amount to us goes a long way for them), or by hosting a fundraiser, or by starting an online campaign.  This topic is not a popular one among celebrities because of society's bizarre and antiquated "slut-shaming & victim-blaming" attitudes towards women who have been the victims of sexual abuse.  Let's focus on the perpertrators as the "dirty" and "ruined" ones, with their black hearts and souls.  The women are innocent and deserve a helping hand.  I will be visiting a Somaly Mam Foundation centre while I'm here and seeing what I can do, as well as buying a bunch of clothes and stuff to take in.  If anyone would like me to buy some clothes or anything like that on their behalf, let me know and we can arrange something.  If you have any questions for me, let me know and I will try to find some answers for you about this.  Never be afraid to start a discourse with me or anyone about this kind of stuff.  Raising awareness is CRITICAL.  In the meantime, see links below.

Amnesty International:  http://www.amnesty.org.au/get-involved/?gclid=CLGe0KziqqwCFaMF4god7yad2w

Somaly Mam Foundation: http://www.somaly.org/about-smf/somaly-mam

Til next we speak
*LOVE*
Nat